08 May 2017

24 July 2016

Japan was built by volcanoes. The city of Kagoshima in southern Kyushu has an active volcano right in the middle of the harbour, which has erupted as recently as 2012. The inner harbour is one enormous caldera. Sakurajima means "Cherry-blossom Island". Source.

15 July 2014

On this date in 1888 Mount Bandai in Fukushima Prefecture erupted, destroying several neighbouring villages and killing about 500 people. This contemporary ukiyoe triptich is by Tankei Inoue. Yasushi Inoue has a short story about it, "Under the Shadow of Mount Bandai", in The Shōwa Anthology.

12 December 2013

The Villa of P. Fannius Synistor stood on the north side of Mount Vesuvius, and was buried in the eruption of AD 79 and not rediscovered until 1900, when its remarkable frescoes were auctioned off and scattered around the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which holds some of the wall paintings, and the King's Visualisation Lab at King's College London, have put together a virtual tour of the house.

This lady is part of a panel from Room H. She looks a trifle unfazed for someone sitting next to a naked guy. Source.

25 July 2013

Iceland is opening a museum to volcanism at Vestmannaeyjar which will incorporate some of the buildings buried by ash in the 1973 eruption, including Gerðisbraut 10, where Gerður Sigurðardóttir's used to live.

ÍBV's midweek league game against Keflavík has been postponed to make way for the Europa League second qualifying round second leg match against Crvena Zvezda, also known as Red Star Belgrade. The first leg ended 2 - 0 in Red Star's favour, so ÍBV need to outscore the Serbs by three goals today to advance to the third qualiying round next week. [0 - 0. Red Star win 0 - 2 on aggregate. ÍBV are out.]

Other Europa League matches involving Icelandic or Scottish clubs:

Hibs 0 - 7 Malmö. Hibs are out.

Standard Liège 3 - 1 KR. KR are out.

St. Johnstone 1 - 1 Rosenborg. St Johnstone advance to the third round. Their opponent will be Minsk.

29 January 2013

If the Cumbre Vieja Volcano on the island of La Palma in the Canaries were to slough its western slope into the ocean in an enormous avalanche, as volcanic islands have been known to do, it would set off a tsunami that would devastate the northeastern coast of South America, the Caribbean, and the eastern coast of North America, including Halifax NS. (Read all about it in The Coast.)

Though in the heart of Europe, Geneva Switzerland was swept by a tsunami in the year 563. (Read about it in The Economist.)